But platform holder insists area remains "vital cog in WWS family"; production stopped on a number of projects

Sony Computer Entertainment has revealed that it is in the process of restructuring its Liverpool studio following "project prioritisation" by the Worldwide Studios division.

No details have been released on the number of posts affected, but GamesIndustry.biz understands that the company will look to relocate staff to other studios where possible - but that some redundancies may be necessary.

It is thought that discussions with staff have taken place today - the full public statement is as follows:

"It has been decided that production on a number of projects within Studio Liverpool will cease immediately due to project prioritisation. Our North West Studio Group has been and will continue to be a vital cog in the WWS family, with a history of producing genre defining games such as MotorStorm, WipEout, Formula 1 and WRC and this decision will have no impact of the role that the North West Studio Group will play in the future of all PlayStation platforms."

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That`s a shame, still hope for a proper remake of Destruction Derby (proper as in "PS1 days like" not like the PS2 version) or Colony Wars, after all space opera genre looks rather empty since some time except from infrequent surprises.

This is a shame; I can only hope that there will be more Wipeout and MotorStorm (very recently started playing Pacific Rift, and enjoying it immensely), and will hold on to the very unlikely prospect that maybe new entries in the G-Police, Rollcage and Colony Wars series will one day be made.

I'm really sorry to hear this news - there's a lot of talented, passionate switched on people at SCEE and I wish you all the best in securing a new role. I'm sure it's a major blow and it will take time to sink in.

All the best for the future guys.... I'm guessing that's the end of Wipeout as a franchise...15 years - not many survive that long. At least we made a splash and to be honest F1CE is still a top notch product despite reviewers not getting it. User reviews FTW.

This is going to seem in bad taste, but I've been trying to get in contact with the minds behind Colony Wars for a couple months now [most recently Tim Wright said he'd e-mail you guys] to do an interview, but man...I'm actually pretty floored by this news. There goes my theory of a new Colony Wars.

Best of luck and I'd love to hopefully talk or get some form of contact with you guys in the future.

the end of the Sony Liverpool studio surely doesn't mean the end necessarily of the franchises for which they are known? I mean IPs such as Wipeout could simply be handled by a different Sony studio. I hope those who lost their jobs find new ones quickly. And I hope a Sony studio does develop new Destruction Derby, Rollcage, G Police, Colony Wars, and Wipeout games for the PSP, PS3, and beyond.

True - Wipeout could continue - but I doubt it would come from that studio. Colony Wars is something that really needs a 1080p/60hz relaunch. That would be truly spectaular on the PS3. Nice big co-op scifi shoot 'em up.....

Unfortunately that won`t happen Dick as the Crash Bandicoot license is a Vivendi license (funny how Crash Bandicoot and Spyro where quite good games as long as Sony was involved in there development), but there are many Psygnosis games franchises that should be resurrected too many franchises ended with the 32/64 Bit era. Probably one part of the problem for the Liverpool studio could have been that F1 is not anymore developed by Sony and the license went to Codemasters, after all it was a yearly game so that was probably keeping many people busy.

u can see it in any website that shows sale figures when sony had crash as mascot it sold about 1.3 million this is crash bandicoot figure and mario 64 was near about 1.9 million wheras each mario title which has ever released sells about 2.5-3 million no other game had drawn mario sales down except crash even sonic the hedgehog didnt let it down